


Culture

by neuronary



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Episode: s01e09 The Waterbending Scroll, Gen, POV Sokka (Avatar), Protective Sokka (Avatar), Water Siblings Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26582872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neuronary/pseuds/neuronary
Summary: Katara and Sokka after the events of The Waterbending Scroll.
Relationships: Katara & Sokka (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55
Collections: Water Siblings Week 2020





	Culture

Sokka was gonna scream. He really was. He’d thus far narrowly avoided grabbing his idiot little sister and shaking her by the shoulders for several minutes on sheer exhaustion and terror alone--

_ That had been the fire nation and the pirates they’d stolen from working together and Katara was a waterbender and waterbenders were kill-on-sight just like the air nomads and Sokka didn’t know how he was supposed to protect them both, he was only fifteen and Aang never took anything seriously and-- _

But now they’d landed miles away from Zuko and the pirates and even though his heart was still thudding in his chest like a war drum they were, temporarily, safe. Now he had time to be angrier than he’d ever been before in his life.

_ A lie. He’d been angrier when Mom had died, and when Dad had left, but he didn’t like thinking about that. So. _

He drummed his fingers against the handle of his boomerang and stomped over to where Katara was sitting, entirely prepared to give her a piece of his mind, yell and snap until he was sure she would stay safe and wait patiently for them to get to their heavily fortified sister tribe to practice her probably illegal magic water tricks like a reasonable little sister.

She sniffled.

_ Oh, the world really hated him didn’t it? _

He wasn’t angry, not really, just scared and tense from all the adrenaline he’d pumped earlier.

He drummed his finger against the handle of his boomerang and sat down. Katara wiped at her face immediately, trying to hide her tears as if he hadn’t spent their entire childhood wiping her face down and making up every dumb joke in the whole South Pole to get her laughing again.

“Hey,” he said, quietly.

“Hey,” she said back.

A joke seemed inappropriate, suddenly, for the kind of crying Katara had been doing. Sokka bumped her shoulder. She sniffled again.

“The scroll’s gone,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Zuko set it on fire. So. There you go. No more new waterbending.”

Sokka thought about the way she treats her waterbending, thought about how long he’d seen her spend practicing it back home, rooting herself to the ice and pulling the sea towards her. He thought back to Mom and Gran-Gran’s joy when they’d discovered she could bend and the way they had been afraid for her just as much. Gran-Gran had blessed the spirits for her gift and prayed for her safety and Dad had said it was up to him to protect her. Sokka had known that protecting Katara suddenly meant more than protecting his baby sister - it meant protecting their culture.

He drummed his fingers against the handle of his boomerang and he understood.

“You know, I wouldn’t be so sure about the whole ‘gone’ thing,” he drawled, leaning back and pulling the scroll out of his shirt.

Katara stared at him.

“Am I the best brother ever, or w-- _oof_!”

Katara tackled him to the ground with a hug, arms wrapped tight around his midsection. He returned the gesture, chuckling wheezily.

“Okay, okay. What have we learned?”

She rolled her eyes as she pulled away. “Stealing is wrong,” - he handed the scroll back to her - “unless it’s from pirates!”

“ _ Katara _ !”


End file.
